Leading by Example on Transparency, Doctors Without Borders Shares TB Trial Costs
In an effort to encourage others to be clear about the full costs of their clinical trials, the international nonprofit Doctors Without Borders will openly share the detailed expenses for a tuberculosis (TB) trial using a new transparency tool it created.
Specifically, the nonprofit will publish the full costs of the trial by site and year, breaking down expenses into 27 categories using its own Transparency CORE toolkit published near the end of April. The toolkit, which is comprised of a standard operating procedure manual and Excel template, is designed to help stakeholders deeply analyze and report trial costs and keep track of expenses throughout the trial process.
The approximately $36 million price tag on the seven-site TB trial stands in sharp contrast to the high R&D costs sponsors claim justify high drug prices, the charity organization said in announcing its transparency effort. It’s the nonprofit’s hope that their full disclosure of trial costs will ultimately improve access to therapies globally.
“Transparency in clinical trial costs is a transformative step towards exposing what medical innovation actually costs and building a future where access to medicines and medical tools is not hindered by high prices,” Bern-Thomas Nyang’wa, PI of the trial, said. “We hope that our disclosure of clinical trial costs … will serve as a clarion call for other public and nonprofit actors to join us and publicly share their clinical trial costs to ensure broader transparency in medical R&D costs.”
Access the Transparency CORE toolkit here.
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